


1-17 Steven The Sword Fighter

by iippo



Series: Steven Universe Renaissance [17]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-13
Updated: 2020-12-13
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:27:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28045422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iippo/pseuds/iippo
Summary: Amethyst tries to teach Steven sword-fighting after they watch an inspiring movie.
Series: Steven Universe Renaissance [17]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1796686
Comments: 1
Kudos: 4





	1-17 Steven The Sword Fighter

**Author's Note:**

> An alternate universe. See series page for details.

It was a late afternoon and rain was pouring down in Beach City. A perfect day for staying sheltered and relaxing. The pink lion that lived near the beach was napping under the porch of the beach house, and inside the house Amethyst and Steven Universe were watching a movie. They were settled and comfortable upstairs on Steven’s bed. They had popcorn. They had Lonely Blade IV – the subbed version. It was perfect.

The scene in the movie was also rainy: Lonely Blade, wearing a samurai hitatare and a top-knot, was challenging the bald janitor standing on the steps of the wooden building. “It was you!” The subtitles interpreted the Japanese dialogue into English. “You were the one who killed my brother. Cursing me to fight alone forever!” He pointed at the janitor and then balled his fist dramatically. Lightning struck.

“Oh Lonely Blade, you so lonely,” Steven commented, identifying with the main character. Amethyst glanced at him from where she was laying on the bed, dangling her head over the edge to watch the TV upside down.

“You think you can defeat me?” The janitor character replied defiantly. “The President of the Shadow Samurai Government?!” He declared and unsheathed a hidden sword in his mop.

“What?! The janitor is the evil samurai president?!” Steven yelped at the reveal.

“That's bananas!” Amethyst agreed and shoveled some popcorn into her upside down mouth.

In the television, Lonely Blade unsheathed the two swords he had dangling on his hips, and connected the hilts. “For my honor and for my brother! I will strike you down!” He declared and looked at his opponent. “Boomerang Blade!” He screeched as he launched the combined swords spinning through the air towards the Samurai President.

The Samurai President leapt upwards and thrust down with his sword, while yelling: “Piercing Shadow of a Thousand... Screams!”

“Go, Lonely, go!” Steven cheered, completely engrossed in the world of the movie.

“Do the Boomerang Blade again!” Amethyst joined in the cheering, popcorn bits flying out of her mouth.

\- - - -

After the movie, Steven and Amethyst were both totally pumped. “Man, I wish my weapon was a sword so I could do cool moves like the Boomerang Blade!” Amethyst enthused.

“Yeah, me too!” Steven agreed.

“Wait, Steven!” Amethyst realised something. “Your weapon is a shield! So you could totally also use a sword to fight!” She exclaimed, lost in her excitement.

“Really?!” Steven yelled, staring at her with stars in his eyes.

“Rose had a sword that she used to fight with, and you have Rose’s shield so it would make sense if you also had her sword!” Amethyst was thrilled, but then paused. “Oh wait, except, I don’t know where it is,” she said with an apologetic frown.

“Ohhh, wait!” Steven yelled and spread his arms dramatically as if he were refereeing an important match. “I have a sword!”

“What?” Amethyst asked, but Steven ran off to his cupboard of mysterious gem junk leftover from previous missions and started digging around it.

“Here!” Steven exclaimed and pulled out the large pink sword that the lion had presented from his mane when Steven and Connie had been under attack by the floating robot outside the movie theater.

Amethyst froze. “That’s… that’s it, that’s Rose’s sword,” Amethyst stammered. She had not seen the weapon in years and she was not prepared for the emotional gut punch of seeing it again suddenly out of context. “Where did you-” she mumbled as she approached Steven carefully, eyes fixed on the pink blade.

“Lion had it!” Steven exclaimed, unaware to Amethyst’s emotional state, and swung around with the heavy blade on his shoulder, forcing Amethyst to duck quickly lest she lose an ear.

“Watch it, dude!” Amethyst chided him, and looked around. “We need a little more room,” she observed. She opened the front door and looked out onto the rain-soaked beach, with no end to the downpour in sight. She closed the door. “Hmm, I have an idea. Come on!”

She hopped to the warp pad followed closely by Steven with his sword, and they vanished into the warp stream.

\- - - -

Amethyst led Steven up the stone steps from the warp pad to the partially-ruined Sky Arena – a platform floating in the air thousands of miles above the earth. The floor was tiled, and the edges of the platform were rimmed with raising steps and obelisks – some broken – with gem carvings. The entire structure was surrounded by clouds. Steven was visibly excited to see a new cool magic gem place, and Amethyst felt good seeing his admiration.

“What is this place?” Steven asked, still looking around in awe.

“An old gem arena,” Amethyst explained smugly. “I don’t come here often because there aren’t any gem monsters here, but I reckoned we could use it today to train and practice some cool moves.”

“Yeah! Like Boomerang Blade!” Steven yelled and flung the huge pink sword he was carrying. It spun around once in the air before landing on the floor with a clatter.

Steven looked at Amethyst, who looked back at him with a blank expression. Neither of them knew why the move hadn’t really worked. Steven walked over to the weapon and picked it up.

“Anyway, maybe you can summon your weapon and see how it looks with both the sword and the shield,” Amethyst suggested.

Steven nodded. He thrust his stomach forward, but nothing happened. He waved his arms in front of him like swimming, he tried squatting, but no shield manifested itself. Amethyst summoned her whip to remind him how it was done, and Steven tried to imitate her gesture of grabbing the air in front of his gem – but his gem did not glow. Amethyst shrugged.

“Well, we can just practice with the sword,” she suggested, and brandished her whip. “Here, block my attack!”

Amethyst cracked her whip lazily towards Steven, who used Connie’s tennis technique to slap the whip away from him.

“Good!” Amethyst encouraged, and attacked again. Steven parried successfully again, and grinned big. Amethyst started to move around in the arena, keeping up a steady pace with her whip, and despite his clumsy form, Steven managed to either dodge or block each of her attacks.

Steven started to sweat, and after a while he called Amethyst to stop so that they could take a break. His arms ached from swinging the heavy weapon around. He leaned on the hilt to catch his breath.

“Whew, we should have brought snacks,” Steven panted. Amethyst agreed as she came over to him and laid down on the ground. She was feeling a little bored, and tried to think of a way to make this training stuff more fun.

And then she got a brilliant idea. She shapeshifted her arm into a sword. “Hey Steven! We can practice real sword fights like this!”

“Are you sure?” Steven asked doubtful, “won’t it hurt you?”

“Nah man, it really is a sword!” Amethyst assured him and pointed her sword-arm to Steven to check out. “When I shapeshift into something, I really turn into that thing!”

Steven felt her shapeshifted arm and it did indeed feel exactly like steel. “Wow! Thanks Amethyst!” Steven said with a smile and lifted his sword. “You’re the best!”

“Okay, you attack me and I’ll parry,” Amethyst suggested. Steven swung the sword – slowly and heavily – and Amethyst raised her arm-sword to block it.

Except Rose’s sword did not get blocked. It sliced right through Amethyst’s shapeshifted weapon-arm and across her body.

“Whoops!” Amethyst yelped and looked at Steven with a pleading expression right before her form dissipated into a huge cloud of white dust with a forceful “poof!” – and her gemstone fell to the floor with a soft clink.

Steven froze in terror, holding the sword, staring at the spot where Amethyst had just stood. He let go of the sword and it fell in front of him with a loud clang.

Steven dropped to his knees. His face was pale, his eyes wide and his pupils small. His hands trembled. The tremor from his hands spread all over his body until he was shaking uncontrollably. Tears were streaming down his face as he crawled on his hands and knees closer to Amethyst’s gem. “Ame- A- Ameth-” he stuttered, struggling to breathe, struggling to see through his tears, as he picked up the purple gem with his trembling hands and brought it close to his core to a protective hug. He curled up around the gem, hugging it, laying on the tiled floor of the sky arena in a fetal position, tears soaking the ground and his clothes.

Steven came to when he felt a presence near him. He cracked his eye and saw a huge creature looming above him. He yelped and pulled away, but then realised that it was the lion. The animal looked at him, stepped over to him and laid down in front of him, as if to invite Steven to climb on his back. Slowly and without a word Steven obliged, still clutching on to Amethyst’s gem with one hand and held on tight with the other as the lion took a few running steps, roared to create a portal of pink light and teleported through it.

They arrived outside the beach house in Beach City, where it was now early evening but still raining. Steven’s father, Greg Universe, was stepping out of the house and he saw Steven and the lion on the beach.

“Oh hey Schtu-ball, I was just looking for y-” Greg started, but stopped mid-sentence when he saw Steven flop lifelessly off the lion’s back. “Steven!” Greg yelped and ran forward. The lion wandered off but Greg didn’t pay it any attention. “Steven, are you alright?” He asked when he reached Steven’s side and lifted him gently to a leaning position.

Steven’s face was streaked with tears and dirt. He was clutching Amethyst’s gem and tried to say something, but he didn’t manage to make a sound. Greg followed his gaze to the gem in his hands and understood.

“Oh! Amethyst poofed? Did it just happen? She usually gets back really quickly,” Greg said, still looking for signs on whether Steven had been hurt too.

Steven looked at Greg like he was an alien. “Back?” He repeated in a broken whisper.

Greg looked at him, confused. “You know, when she has a bad accident and she poofs, and then she comes back, with new clothes?” Greg attempted to explain. “We have to get you out of this rain,” he observed and scooped Steven in his arms before he had had a chance to process the information.

\- - - -

Inside the house, Greg had got the fire going and made some hot chocolate in the microwave. He had managed to convince Steven to set Amethyst’s gem on the living room table and to change into some dry clothes. They then settled on the sofa with their mugs. Greg put his arm around Steven when he explained what had happened.

“...and the sword just, it didn’t get blocked somehow, and instead I just cut straight through her and she-” Steven struggled to finish his sentence as he started to shake and cry again from the horrible memory.

Greg squeezed him tighter into a sideways hug. “It was an accident,” Greg consoled him. “Stuff like this happens to Amethyst a lot. She’ll be fine as long as her gem is fine.” They both looked at the flawless gem on the table, which glimmered gently as it reflected the light of the fireplace. “You just gotta wait a while,” he added with a soft smile.

Steven smiled weakly and nodded before taking a sip from his drink. Greg did his best to hide his concern from Steven: he knew that Amethyst usually reformed very quickly and it had now been several hours since the accident.

They sat on the sofa talking all evening. As it grew late, Greg offered to stay with Steven so that he didn’t have to be alone in the house at night, but Steven – knowing that Greg slept better in his van than on the sofa – told him not to worry as he was always alone in the house at night, and that they would see each other the next day. After hugging his son good night, Greg left and walked back to the car wash where his van was parked.

After Greg left, Steven looked pensively at Amethyst’s gem on the table. He walked upstairs to go to bed, but then returned back downstairs with a pillow and a small blanket. He placed the gem on the pillow and tucked it under the blanket, and wished it good night before going back upstairs.

\- - - -

Steven tossed and turned all night. He had difficulty falling alseep, for he was haunted by the vision of Amethyst’s form dissipating whenever he closed his eyes. And in the rare moments he did manage to sleep, he had nightmares of Amethyst being trapped in dodecahedral boxes with no way of helping her. And he startled awake at the smallest sound, hoping that it was a sign of Amethyst’s reappearance.

The next morning he woke up late – though the continuing gloomy weather made the day seem dim like dusk – and walked stiffly down the steps. His gaze immediately landed on the gem on the table, sitting there on the pillow and tucked under the blanket exactly as he had left it last night, and his heart sank.

He went through his morning routine in an automated haze. When he was ready for the day, he stepped over to the kitchen and ate something that tasted like cardboard for breakfast. After finishing eating he went upstairs and turned the tv on. A rerun of his favourite cartoon, Crying Breakfast Friends was on, and he watched it numbly, tears streaming down his face for Spilled Milk’s unsuccessful attempts at finding her way out of a hypermarket. After the episode was over and nothing else interesting was on, he clicked the tv over to the console input and played the game that happened to be in the device.

After an indeterminate time had passed Steven came to and realised he had been zoning out, controller in hand, staring blankly at the tv screen where his character waited for him to make the next move. He sighed and turned the tv off and dropped the controller on the floor. He flopped back on the bed and curled around his blanket.

He must have fallen asleep, because he woke up to his dad sitting next to him on the bed and putting his hand on his shoulder. Steven felt like he was sinking into molasses as he gained consciousness.

“Hey kiddo, how you doing?” Greg asked. Steven looked at him and shrugged slowly. “Still sad about Amethyst?” Greg asked. Steven averted his eyes but nodded.

“Come on, let’s have lunch,” Greg coaxed him. “How ‘bout pizza?” Steven made a noncommittal gesture and rose from the bed like a glacier. Greg watched Steven drag himself across the room and tried to keep his worry off his face. He had never seen Steven this depressed and he wasn’t sure what to do. The only thing he was sure of was that Steven needed him.

All through their lunch Steven went through the motions like he was pre-programmed. Mid-chewing tears started dripping from his eyes one by one, and then as a continuous stream.

“Hey, whoa, buddy, what’s up?” Greg asked in alarm and clumsily shoved napkins at Steven’s face to dry his tears.

“I was just… thinking how… pizza is Amet- Amethyst’s favourite…” Steven sobbed and tried to swallow the mouthful of pizza that was turning to stone in his throat.

“Oh Steven! It’s okay, Amethyst will be back,” Greg tried to console him. And while Steven _knew_ that his father was telling him the truth and he would just need to be patient and wait for Amethyst to reform, it didn’t change the way he _felt_. Like there was a huge aching void in his chest that only went away when he was asleep. He hiccupped through the rest of the meal, eventually giving up as unable to finish his pizza, and they left the restaurant.

Greg walked him to the beach house. “Hey, how about I take the rest of the day off and stay here with you?” Greg asked Steven when they got through the door.

“No dad, you should go to work,” Steven said, knowing that Greg couldn’t exactly afford to take entire days off whenever he wanted to, and also because Steven didn’t really feel like being around people. “I’ll be fine, I’ll just…” he motioned vaguely towards the house.

“ _Wait for Amethyst to reform,_ ” Greg finished Steven’s sentence in his mind, but didn’t say anything. “Okay, buddy, but call me if you need anything, okay?” He made Steven promise to call him. “I’ll come by after work again,” he added, gave Steven a squeeze, and left.

Steven felt relieved to be alone again. After a quick glance at Amethyst’s gem – he noticed that he was starting to avoid looking at it – he climbed the steps back upstairs, kicked off his sandals and flopped onto the bed.

\- - - -

Steven lost count of the days, they all felt the same. Even though the weather was changing from day to day, even though new episodes of Crying Breakfast Friends aired, even though Steven’s friends – Peedee, Onion, Lars and Sadie – dropped by to say hi and see how he was doing as Greg had asked them to, even though Greg came every day to hang out and talk about his day.

And yet, slowly, as the days and weeks passed, Steven started to feel different. He started to taste food again. He started to feel the sun and wind and rain on his face again. He only cried at the very saddest episodes of CBF. He started to look forward to seeing his dad or meeting his friends.

\- - - -

Two weeks after Amethyst’s accident, Steven was sitting in his living room with Greg. They had finished eating dinner together and the dirty plates were still on the living room table – Amethyst’s gem had been moved to the kitchen island, “so that she could see what was going on,” as Steven had put it.

Then suddenly, Amethyst’s gem began to glow, and it floated in the air. An Amethyst-shaped figure made of pure white light began to form around the gem. It fluctuated in shape a few times before solidifying into Amethyst; her white flowing hair, her purple skin, her new black top and grey pants with black stars in them, her white boots. Her eyes were still closed when Steven rushed over to hug her.

“Amethyst!” Steven cried and buried his face into her shoulder.

“Oof, hey! Miss me much?” Amethyst said with a cheery voice and grabbed a hold of him. She saw Greg standing behind Steven and greeted him with a “yo Greg!” Greg nodded but was unable to hide the concern on his face. Amethyst had been gone for two weeks – which was unheard of.

“I didn’t know you could just… poof like that,” Steven mumbled into Amethyst’s hair, still hugging her tightly.

She petted his hair. “I’m sorry dude, I shoulda told you, but, I just forgot,” Amethyst replied nonchalantly. She kept trying to break off from the hug but Steven wasn’t letting go. She shot another look at Greg and made a what-should-I-do -face at him.

Greg stepped over and put his hand on Steven’s back. “Hey Steven, let’s let Amethyst check out her new form,” he said in a cheery tone that didn’t match his expression. Reluctantly Steven let go of Amethyst, but stayed close to her. Amethyst looked down at her new outfit with a peppy smile.

“This is great, I really needed a change, y’know,” she said and grinned to Steven, who smiled back weakly. “I’m starving, do we have any popcorn?” She said and stepped over to the kitchen and looked in the cabinet with the cleaning supplies.

Steven followed close behind her, as if worried that she would vanish again. Greg observed Amethyst’s every move. Unsatisfied with the supplies, she closed the cabinet door and noticed that everyone was staring at her tensely. “Okay what’s going on?” She turned to face them with a frown. Steven slipped under her arm and into a sideways hug, and almost instinctually she wrapped her arm around him. She looked at Greg. “You’re acting all, weird,” she said to him.

“Amethyst, you were gone for a really long time,” Greg said with concern. “Rose said that you always reform really quickly, but this time you were out for two weeks! Are you… okay?”

Amethyst squirmed uncomfortably, both because of the mention of Rose – it felt like an accusation – but also because she didn’t want to think about it. But it was true: she had taken way longer than usual to reform and she couldn’t explain why. It hadn’t been for a lack of trying. She had just felt trapped, or lost, and wasn’t able to come out until now. She took a deep breath. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “I mean I’m fine now, but…” Steven squeezed her tighter, which made her feel better, “but I don’t know why I couldn’t reform sooner.” She looked at Greg with a serious look.

Greg nodded, looking equally serious.

Steven looked from Greg to Amethyst and back, trying to understand what wasn’t being said.

Amethyst noticed Steven’s worry and squeezed him. “Hey so when do we watch the next Lonely Blade?” She asked him with a grin.


End file.
